CSR360

Posted: Tuesday 10 May 11, 9.00am GMT

Whose idea was it to create the programme and what was the motivation behind Abbott embarking on employee volunteering activities?
Rooted in our company’s values, employee volunteerism is a valued practice for Abbott globally – it’s an integral part of the company’s approach to responsible citizenship. Across Abbott’s 14 sites in Ireland, employees organise many activities that support the communities in which we reside. Much of this work is focused on advancing science education – an area that allows Abbott employees to share their skills and expertise. Employees volunteered more than 8,200 hours in 2010. Similar volunteer programmes are conducted at Abbott sites around the world.

In recent years, we saw an opportunity to utilise our employees’ expertise in science and engineering and focus on the worrying decline in young people’s interest in science as a career. Abbott Ireland launched two unique science programmes in 2009 to meet this challenge: Abbott Family Science and Operation Discovery. The Abbott Fund, (the company’s philanthropic foundation) developed these science programmes to provide hands-on experiences for students that would help stimulate children’s interest in science and inspire the next generation of science innovators.

Family Science brings together primary school students, parents, teachers and Abbott volunteers for an evening focused on engaging families in discovering the wonders of science. This includes exploring basic science skills (observation, problem-solving, teamwork) and building confidence as science learners through fun, hands-on experiments. Operation Discovery brings secondary students and their teachers to Abbott sites to work directly with Abbott scientists. These scientists serve as role models to the students and facilitate authentic, hands-on activities in small groups that introduce students to some of the scientific tools and procedures that Abbott employees use everyday in their work.

Has the Employee Volunteering programme brought any significant benefits to Abbott and its employees?
The Abbott Ireland employee volunteering programme has increased employees’ pride in the company. For example, in February 2011, 84 percent of employees rated Abbott’s relationship with local groups and charities as excellent or good, an increase from 70 percent in 2009. In addition, 75 percent agree that volunteering can help improve skills used in their jobs.

Are there any examples of stories of how the Employee Volunteering programme has helped people?
The science volunteering programmes are increasing interest in science, which will hopefully help to build a “pipeline” of future scientists and engineers. For example, a post-Family Science survey shows that 80 percent of parents are very likely to discuss careers in science with their child, up from 37 percent pre-programme. Likewise, secondary students who participate in Operation Discovery say they think working in science would be fun (73 percent after Operation Discovery as compared with 39 percent prior to the event).

In these times of economic recession, how has this programme added value for the society?
Science and technology are critically important to Ireland’s economy and our broader society. It’s important to inspire the next generation of scientists, who will grow up to become the inventors and innovators of tomorrow’s medicines and medical devices. We need to create a culture for students in which their interest in science is encouraged, including through real-world experiences beyond the classroom.

Knowing that their scientific knowledge might influence greater take-up of science and engineering studies and careers, nearly 200 Abbott Ireland employees have volunteered through these programmes and reached more than 1,500 students and parents to date across Ireland.

What were the main challenges that you overcame in order to make the programme a success?
One challenge was matching employees’ skills and expertise to the specific programme needs. For example, as an important component of the programmes is the close involvement of Abbott scientists; a good ratio is one volunteer to every five to seven participants – which means we needed to identify dozens of scientists to participate in a new programme that they were not familiar with. We overcame this challenge by directly asking employees who will be good volunteers to participate, and by conducting training sessions for volunteers on how to implement the programmes.

In the second year of the programmes, volunteer recruitment and coordination were much easier as the previous year’s volunteers were excited about the programmes and helped recruit and train their colleagues. For example, one employee in Longford said, “I’m looking forward to doing Operation Discovery again because it’s sharing my talents and it’s great to see kids so interested.”

What does the future hold for the Abbott Science Programmes?
In Ireland, we’ve expanded the programmes from five to eight locations in the past 18 months. Through a new partnership with the Irish government’s science initiative (Discover Science and Engineering), we have expanded our reach by creating a complementary web resource for parents. It is bringing science learning into the home and this partnership will help us reach even more students and increase interest in science and engineering careers throughout the country.

The success with Family Science and Operation Discovery has led the Abbott Fund to expand the programmes to additional countries: the UK, Germany, China, Korea and Singapore. There is potential for greater collaboration with our colleagues around the world as we look to share best practices on the programmes.